Politics and Culture News by Jesse Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times

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The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., biography

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over …

Obama has worked for all Americans

When former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president, Romney campaign chair John Sununu dismissed it as just a black man standing up for one of his tribe. That racial gibe fits a campaign with a yawning racial divide: Obama is struggling …Read More
Richest 1% is mobilizing to protect its privilege

‘Corporations are people, my friends,” said Mitt Romney. And in Citizens United, the conservative justices of the Supreme Court agreed, ruling that corporations, like individuals, are free to spend unlimited sums in so-called “independent expenditures” for candidates. The result — as TV viewers in contested …Read More
Moderators should force a real debate on vital issues

Debate moderators always get a bad rap. As Jim Lehrer and Martha Raddatz demonstrated, candidates’ zealous supporters tend to blame the moderator if their champion doesn’t fare well. That’s not fair, but I do suggest moderators should be held accountable for whether they raise questions …Read More

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Bain sends Illinois jobs to China

Mrs. Dot Turner has worked at what is now Sensata Technologies in Downstate Freeport for 43 years. The company does sophisticated work creating sensors for automobiles. It enjoyed record profits last year. But not enough for its owner — Bain Capital — which is moving …

Ignore debate zingers, focus on issues

As Wednesday’s presidential debate approaches, the political junkies are gearing up for a shoot-out. If history is any guide, much attention will be paid to the political horse race. Much debate commentary will be about technique: Will President Barack Obama be crisp? Will Mitt Romney …

A shocking silence on lives cut short

The silence is deafening. Last week, the New York Times reported a horrifying measure of America’s shame. Life expectancy for white women without a high school degree had decreased by five years since 1990, according to a study in Health Affairs. Five years. The least-educated …

Important school issues are ‘off the table’

The Chicago teachers strike has gotten national attention, much of it presuming that the biggest issues are pay and evaluation. But the Chicago Teachers Union has stated that the two sides have been very close on pay. And union members have no objection to evaluation; …

The poor could be strong swing vote

Nearly 50 million Americans now are in poverty. One in four children will grow up in impoverished households. Redressing poverty is a national emergency and a moral imperative. In our money-drenched political debate, the poor receive little attention. Yet they could be the key swing …

Counter GOP by telling the truth at Dem convention

Inevitably, the Democratic Party fest in Charlotte, N.C., will be compared to last week’s Republican gathering in Tampa, Fla. The speeches by the vice president and president will be contrasted with those of Republican nominees Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. The Republican convention was marked …

Romney should condemn voter suppression

The Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., touches on a date that has marked the depths and the heights of the African-American experience in this country. On Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old African American visiting his relatives, was brutally murdered in Mississippi for …

Romney’s agenda: Class warfare

Raise taxes on the rich? “Class warfare” the Republicans rail. Any discussion of inequality, says Mitt Romney, should be held privately “in quiet rooms.” Yet the Romney agenda for the country opens a new offensive in class warfare — only on the side of the …

Playing field is tilted against voters

Thrill to the vibrant gymnastics grace of Gabby Douglas, the fierce tennis power of Serena Williams, the skill of Kayla Harrison in winning the first gold for an American woman in judo. Led by Missy Franklin and Rebecca Soni and others, the U.S. women’s swimming …

Police chiefs are right: Ban assault weapons

‘We’re talking about weapons that are made for war,” said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee. “An AK-47 is a Russian-made weapon that is made for war. An AR-15, which is an answer to the AK-47 . . . these high-capacity [guns] . . . you …

Lax gun laws allow terrorism at home

We are shocked and saddened by the massacre in Aurora, Colo. But Aurora is part of a pattern, not an isolated incident. Two days earlier, 17 were hurt outside a bar in Tuscaloosa, Ala., when a gunman opened fire. There is no safe zone. Rep. …

The GOP and the vote: Return to Jim Crow

Aug. 6 marks the 47th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Passed by large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, the act reflected the overwhelming consensus in America that had been finally forged on Alabama’s …

Put U.S. jobs above D.C. partisanship

African Americans and Latinos have suffered the most in the Great Recession. They were the first to lose jobs, and the last to find new jobs. They struggle with the highest unemployment, the greatest loss of personal wealth, the highest percentage of families losing their …

Young America is key to 2012 election

When young Americans come alive, they transform the possible. We saw that in 2008 when young Americans — the millennial generation of 18- to 29-year-olds — voted in large numbers (larger than the aging baby boomers), and overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. They cast almost one …